Saturday, February 20, 2010

J.M. Dent & Sons (Canada) Limited commissioned Doug to illustrate the 438-page textbook CANADA: The Struggle for Empire; he used acetate ink in order to achieve the dry-brush effect. The First Printing was February 1960.

One aspect of Doug's recognizable style - whether he's illustrating a textbook or creating a color cartoon for Playboy - is his attention to detail.

"Benjamin Franklin was trained as a printer and in 1729 had his own printing and publishing house in Pennsylvania, where he published the "Pennsylvania Gazette," writing much of the material for the newspaper himself. The "Pennsylvania Gazette" eventually became the Saturday Evening Post. In the picture, Franklin's assistant is seen operating the printing press, tightening the handle which presses the sheet of paper against the inked type." - pg. 252 caption

"The Eskimo of Alaska and the Aleutian Islands hunted the sea otter from a type of boat called an "umiak," made of walrus or sealskins stretched over a light wooden framework. The umiak could be either rowed or paddled. Sometimes, when the wind was favourable, a square sail was used. The picture shows a Russian trader being rowed to his ship in an umiak loaded with sea otter skins." - pg. 396 caption

"The English fishermen cleaned and dried their catch on shore. The catch was landed on the wharf, and from there it was taken to the shed for dressing. The livers then went to the press (left centre) where cod-liver oil was extracted. The fish were washed in the tank on the beach before being laid out on the "flakes" in the foreground to dry. This method of preserving the catch was known as "dry" fishery." - pg. 38 caption

Thursday, February 18, 2010

It's the perfect time to share this gag rough reject, submitted to Playboy for the '92 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, Spain. Just update it to this month's Winter Olympics in Vancouver, B.C. and think skiing, snowboarding, curling or ice hockey.

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Gage Educational Publishing Limited, Toronto commissioned Doug to illustrate an essay by Joseph Schull on the life of the Nova Scotia shipbuilder W. D. Lawrence. The essay, titled "The Basket of Eggs," appeared in the 1970 children's reading book Cavalcades.

Early in Doug's career as a free lance artist, he was hired by a number of Canadian publishers to do illustrations for textbooks. In fact, he estimates that his work appears in at least 60 textbooks.

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Monday, February 8, 2010

The December 1983 issue of CARTOONIST PROfiles highlighted the success of "The Cartoons of Playboy" as a fund raiser for the Museum of Cartoon Art in New York. The exhibit - which opened November 12, 1983 and continued through January 1984 - included 75 original drawings by "60 of the top Playboy cartoonists."(blog entries by Heidi Hutson)

Saturday, February 6, 2010

Doug joined an impressive list of Canadian men and women - writers, comedians, cartoonists, comic essayists, etc. - featured in The Great Big Book of Canadian Humour, edited by Allan Gould and published by Macmillan Canada.

Gould included a single-panel Doug Sneyd in the 1992 publication.

In his intro commentary, Gould wrote, "This country has produced some of the richest lodes of comedy in the world, and it is about time that a goodly selection be found in one place."

Thursday, February 4, 2010

Tuesday, February 2, 2010

Because his single-panel news cartoon Doug Sneyd was syndicated in newspapers across North America, Doug was a member of the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists and supported its credo: "We believe that, as an important segment of America's editorialists, we have the obligation to defend and advance the freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution of the United States."

In the annual AAEC membership book, cartoonists supplied samples of their work for inclusion with contact information.

UPCOMING EVENTS

Bio

Doug has been a cartoonist for Playboy magazine since 1964.
For nearly 20 years, starting in the mid-60's, his "Doug Sneyd" and "Scoops" news cartoons appeared daily in newspapers across North America. Sneyd's talent has also led him into cinema: in 1993, he wrote, produced and directed "Black-eyed Susan," an educational movie-drama about spousal abuse, for the Ontario government. He was a founding member of the Canadian Society of Book Illustrators and has been a member of the National Cartoonists' Society and the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists. Thirty of his full-page color Playboy cartoons are among the 235 Sneyd works included in the National Archives of Canada in Ottawa.
Sneyd was born in Guelph, Ontario, Canada, but spent much of his professional career in Toronto. In 1969 he moved his family north to Orillia made famous as the mythical "Mariposa" by humorist Stephen Leacock. He works on the third floor of his home-studio overlooking beautiful Lake Couchiching and spends his winters on the Gulf Coast in Orange Beach, Alabama.